April 6 Youth Movement calls for protests against price hike

CAIRO: April 6 Youth Movement will hold several protests following Eid al-Fitr against the price hike and the protest law, Youm 7 reported.

Member of the political bureau of April 6 Youth Movement Mohamed Mostafa told Youm7 that they will criticize several “practices” including detaining revolutionary youth.

During the past couple of months, April 6 Movement organized several protests against the protest law which was approved in November 2013.

The movement is planning to organize a massive economic conference to discuss the price hike and the economic stance in Egypt, Mostafa said.

The increase of fuel prices by amounts between 0.70 EGP (4 cents) and 0.75 per liter early July has been criticized by many as it could cause increase in the prices of several products due to the increase of transportation costs.

The National Alliance to Support Legitimacy (NASL) called on its supporters to organize protests on July 22 against the increase of gas prices, the alliance said in a statement issued on its Facebook page July 20.

Consumer Protection Agency (CPA) head Zeinab Awad Allah told Al-Masry Al-Youm on July 5 that the move could raise prices on some products by as much as 200 percent.

All activities of the April 6 Youth Movement have been banned by the Abdeen Court for Urgent Matters last April after a lawyer filed a lawsuit accusing the movement of receiving illicit funds and assaulting state security authorities.

The April 6 Youth Movement began in 2008 as a Facebook group to support laborers in Mahalla, an industrial town in the Nile delta, who were planning a strike on April 6. Many of its members have become prominent activists and were instrumental in the January 25 Revolution.

Activists Ahmed Doma, Ahmed Maher the founder of April 6 Youth movement and Mohamed Adel were sentenced to three years in jail and fined 50,000 EGP for protesting in violation of the protest law, and assaulting police officers in November 2013 in front of Abdeen Misdemeanors Court.

After the court banned the movement’s activities, several political figures denounced the verdict, deeming it as “illegal.”